{"id":7534,"date":"2014-04-14T07:51:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T12:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leavittbrothers.com\/blog\/?p=7534"},"modified":"2014-04-14T07:51:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T12:51:37","slug":"before-the-open-mar-14-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.leavittbrothers.com\/?p=7534","title":{"rendered":"Before the Open (Mar 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. <\/span>
\n The Asian\/Pacific markets closed mostly down. Australia dropped 1.3%; New Zealand and Taiwan also dropped noticeably. Indonesia and Singapore did well. Europe is currently mostly down. Belgium and Greece are down more than 2%; Russia, London and Italy are down more than 1%. Futures here in the States point towards a moderate gap up open for the cash market.
\n<\/span>
\n The dollar is up. Oil is down, copper down. Gold is up, silver down. <\/span>
\n Last week was bad one for the bulls and a great one for the bears. The S&P and Dow finally succumbed to the weakness from the Nas and small caps. For several weeks those indexes were weak and moving down (they had put in lower highs and lower lows), but the Dow and SPX held up in their patterns. Not any more. All the indexes are now sitting at their lowest levels since early February…the Nas and small caps are near their February lows; the Dow and SPX still have room to move. <\/span>
\n On an intermediate term basis, the path of least resistance is down. Several indicators, which have been weak and supportive of the bear’s case, have room to move before hitting extremely low levels. From a technical standpoint, I’d be surprised if the market just put in a bottom right here…although we shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s happened before (see chart below). <\/span>
\n On a short term basis, anything goes. This is always the case, so we need to be prepared for most reasonable scenarios. The biggest up moves occur within downtrends, and with this being options expiration week and holiday-shortened, you never know. <\/span>
\n\"\"
\n Over the next few months I see more downside, but I don’t expect a crash like many are predicting. More after the open. <\/span>
\nStock headlines<\/strong> from barchart.com…<\/span>
\n Yahoo (YHOO -1.59%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at SunTrust.<\/span>
\n Eaton Vance (EV -1.21%) was upgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ at Citigroup.<\/span>
\n Whole Foods Market (WFM -0.22%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at BB&T.<\/span>
\n Bebe stores (BEBE -3.01%) were upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Janney Capital.<\/span>
\n British Petroleum (BP -1.72%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord.<\/span>
\n Eli Lilly (LLY -0.36%) was upgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Underperform’ at Jefferies.<\/span>
\n Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +0.34%) fell 1% in European trading after Jeffries downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy,’ citing valuation.<\/span>
\n Fiera Capital reported a 8.02% passive stake in Richmont Mines (RIC -2.07%) .<\/span>
\n Dow Jones reports that Amazon.com (AMZN -1.70%) plans to launch a smartphone in the second half of this year.<\/span>
\n Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit ratings for Alcoa (AA -1.26%) to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘ and kept the rating outlook stable.<\/span>
\nEarnings and Economic Numbers<\/strong> from seekingalpha.com…<\/span>
\n Today’s economic calendar:
\n 8:30 Retail Sales
\n 10:00 Business Inventories<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n Notable earnings before today’s open: C, JBHT, LAYN, MTB<\/span>
\n Notable earnings after today’s close: LEDS, OZRK, PBY, TPLM<\/span>
\nOther<\/strong>…<\/span>
\ntoday’s upgrades\/downgrades<\/a> from briefing.com<\/span>
\nthis week’s Earnings<\/a><\/span>
\nthis week’s Economic Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n